Fabrication services expanded:
New facility means new capabilities for Ventura Region business unit

The new year brought significant change for IRWIN's Ventura Region Business Unit: a move to a new facility four times the size of the previous location. From its new location, near the Port of Hueneme in Oxnard, California, IRWIN is now able to offer more to its fabrication, construction and maintenance customers including expanded services and capabilities and increased productivity and efficiency.

According to Ventura Regional Manager Curtis Chamberlain, business has steadily grown since IRWIN first began operations in the area in 1996.

"As the needs of our customers have changed and grown, IRWIN has continually invested and expanded to meet those needs. This new facility is the latest example of that commitment. At the old location, we had reached our growth limit, and now - with 45,000 SF of fabrication space and 6,500 SF of administrative space on three acres - it feels like we're getting the chance to stretch before a big race."

With the goal of significantly expanding the Ventura Region business unit's regional market share in the industrial services sector, Executive Vice President Ricardo Teamor led the search for the new facility. Having conducted focused market research; industry, regulatory and marketplace studies; and customer interviews about their current and future needs, Teamor directed his search to the city of Oxnard, and in particular, to locations close to the Port of Hueneme.

"The Port of Hueneme is a great asset, and operating a large, well-equipped fabrication facility barely two miles away, makes great business sense," he said.

According to Teamor, the relative ease of transporting large structures by barge to destinations up and down the coast offers a competitive advantage that others will be hard-pressed to match. "Some of the vessels we produce can be quite large," he said, "and this can present logistical challenges and additional expense when transporting to onshore destinations by truck. With the port literally in our backyard, a large number of onshore and offshore destinations become much more accessible."

Additionally, the new facility is located near a railhead, further extending its geographic reach.

"It is probably the best location we could have possibly acquired," concluded Teamor. "And, we are extremely fortunate that our new landlords, the Port of Hueneme, have been gracious, professional and highly understanding of our industry in general and our business in particular."

Ventura Region Operations Coordinator Craig O'Neill added to the location's list of advantages. "If you look up the street, you can see RRI's (Ormond Beach) power plant, and if you take a walk to the back of our parking lot, you can see the regional support facility of one of our largest customers," he says. "We are in our customers' neighborhood and couldn't have asked for a more convenient location."

Providing fabrication, construction and maintenance services to a variety of industries from Bakersfield to Santa Barbara to Los Angeles, the bulk of the business unit's work supports the offshore production platforms and onshore pumping and processing facilities of oil and gas companies operating off the Santa Barbara coast.

On average, the Ventura Region operation employs about 120 employees at several field sites, and an additional 20 people in the fabrication shop. Items fabricated in the shop include pressure vessels, storage tanks, pipe spools, pipe supports, exchanger shells, platforms, equipment skids and other structures.

IRWIN's 45,000 square feet of shop space under roof is composed of two physically separate facilities, sharing the same three-acre parcel. In addition to fabricating larger pieces in greater volume, crews will also have the ability to simultaneously manufacture components using a wider variety of materials without compromising quality, simultaneously working with incompatible materials while ensuring their respective purity.

According to Quality Assurance / Quality Control Supervisor Carlos Avelar, "With two separate fabrication shops onsite, we have more room to handle exotic metals. We can take on different kinds of work knowing that we can work stainless steel in one shop and carbon steel in another without worrying about cross-contamination and corrosion."

Avelar believes the new location will also lead to better workmanship because shop employees will have more spacious work areas.

"IRWIN has a high quality standard for the items that we fabricate," Avelar says. "I put quality up there with safety because not only must we work safely, but we must also produce quality products. That's what our customers expect and it's what keeps them coming back to us. Providing a more comfortable and efficient work area will keep our employees focused on safety, quality and the challenging welds they successfully complete day after day."

The new facility is composed of three spacious main bays, two of which are 25' x 200' and one of which is 50' x 200'. Armed with additional space and new equipment, regional manager Chamberlain is already planning how he will put it to work for his customers. "The shop's footprint allows for a more efficient process flow and accommodates the fabrication of some very large products," he says.

In the first few months following move-in, IRWIN has invested in a 10-ton, a 5-ton and two 3 1/2-ton overhead cranes, and additional equipment purchases are planned for 2010. In addition, the new shop will warehouse a greater volume of raw materials, tools and other equipment with plenty of space left over for future expansion.

"The lot is set up in such a way that, when we add to our list of services and implement different processes, we can easily route vessels through distinct stations within the fabrication shop, then out to other areas on the lot for further work," says Ed Powell, Ventura's Fabrication Superintendent. Powell, who years ago worked onsite when the facility was occupied by its original tenant, Pennington Manufacturing (see photo below right), speaks firsthand of the future growth possibilities for the Oxnard facility.

"There is a lot of space we can grow into," he adds, "and it's going to be exciting expanding and improving it over time."

According to IRWIN President Randy Renny, "Acquiring a new space for the Ventura business unit has been planned for a long time but we never found the right time to make the move without disrupting our workflow for our customers. However, last year it became clear that market conditions had matured to the point where expanding to a larger, better-equipped facility made good business sense, so we made it a priority."

"Thanks to the efforts of Ricardo Teamor, Curtis Chamberlain, Craig O'Neill, Ed Powell and the entire staff, the move went smoothly, and the shop was up and running in no time," he continued. "It is truly a facility every IRWIN employee can be proud of, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how the Ventura group continues to improve it over time."

The Ventura Region facility, located in Oxnard, California, is the newest of three IRWIN offices. The other offices are: an operations hub for the southeastern United States, located in Greenville, South Carolina and the corporate headquarters, located in Long Beach, California since the company was founded in 1922.

printer-friendly version of this page